Paul Ryan Budget Reduces Spending To Lowest Levels Since 1948: Report

Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) proposed budget would reduce government spending outside of Social Security and interest on debt to its lowest levels in over six decades, Investor's Business Daily reported Wednesday.

Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, unveiled his latest fiscal proposal on Tuesday, laying out $4.6 trillion in cuts over the next decade. The blueprint aims to balance the budget in 10 years by slashing Medicare, Medicaid and programs to aid the poor, including food stamps. Ryan's plan would also repeal President Barack Obama's health care reform law.

"This is not only a responsible, reasonable balanced plan," Ryan said on Tuesday. "It's also an invitation. This is an invitation to the president of the United States, to the Senate Democrats, to come together to fix these problems."

Under the House GOP plan, government spending would hit its lowest levels in 65 years. Investor's Business Daily's Jed Graham reports:

By 2023, under Paul Ryan's budget, the entirety of federal spending outside of Social Security and interest on the debt (16.4% of GDP in 2012) would shrink to 11.2% of GDP, a level not seen since 1948 — before ObamaCare, Medicare, Medicaid, NASA, the interstate highway system and almost before the first baby boomers were born.

That is nearly 25% below the 14.6% of GDP average over the past 64 years. In the only three years over this span that saw spending on the main functions of government (outside of saving for retirement) dip just below 12% of GDP, the unemployment rate averaged 4.5% or less, shrinking safety net outlays while bolstering the spending capacity of state and local governments.

Graham also calculates that by leaving Medicare expenditures out as well as Social Security and interest, spending levels would shrink to 7.9 percent of GDP by 2023, the lowest level since 1938, before Social Security and Medicare programs were created.

<a href="http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/fy14budget.pdf">His plan would cut the budget</a> by $4.6 trillion over the next 10 years. <a href="http://www.epi.org/blog/ryan-proposes-path-jobs-slower-growth/">These budget cuts</a> would raise the unemployment rate, shrink the economy and eliminate 2 million jobs in 2014 alone, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)